Environment and Health
Another Chapter in Coal’s Trail of Pollution
As a West Virginian, I have one question for you — is coal pollution in your water, too? The answer might surprise you. Here in West Virginia, thousands continue to wonder whether their water is safe after a recent coal chemical spill just upstream from the state's...
A Fast Track to Eroding Our Rights
Do you care about having access to local and sustainably produced food or protecting your drinking water? Are you concerned about corporate influence distorting our elections? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you should be worried about legislation...
This Is What Climate Change Looks Like
"It's been a bit cold here," my dad told me on a recent phone call. He lives in Chicago; I'm in San Diego. The next time I turned on the news, I saw headlines screaming "Polar Vortex!" with sub-zero temperatures across the Midwest. Dad's known in our family for his...
Short-Circuiting the Future
Will our fossil-fueled economy make humans go the way of the dinosaurs? There are plenty of reasons to think so. Coal, oil, and gas continue to account for 87 percent of global energy consumption despite scientific consensus that drastic change is essential for...
The Magic of De-Regulation
The Perils of Watered-Down Regulations
"There's a folksy saying my grandma taught me: 'If it smells like licorice and tastes like licorice, it must be licorice.' Now it has a corollary: 'Or it could also be a 4-methylcyclohexane methanol spill into your water supply, so grab the children and run for your...
Re-Defining the Environment
When American aid worker-turned essayist William Powers went to Bolivia, he found the Chiquitano indigenous people didn't share our concept of "the environment." How could a people living in one of the most pristine tropical forests in the world fail to grasp this? To...
Breeding Superbugs
Can antibiotic medicines, long hailed as miracle drugs, be too much of a good thing? Yes. Two factors are at work here. First, bacteria (one of the earliest forms of life on Earth) are miracles in their own right, with a stunning ability to outsmart the antibiotic...
Why I’m Breathing Easier in 2014
For the first time in years, I've got health insurance. Before now, my "insurance" was nothing more than exercise, a healthy diet, and medicinal herbs. I've gotten insured through the Affordable Care Act without dealing with a buggy website because I live in...
This California Scheme Is Bad for Your Health
In this wicked world of woe, there are hucksters, flimflammers, plain ol' crooks...and Republican members of the California Assembly. This last bunch of scoundrels went out of their way to monkeywrench the rollout of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. This...
